1. Field of the Invention
The principles of the present invention relate generally to project management, and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to utilizing best practices (solutions) to satisfy requirements (problems) of a requirements engagement.
2. Background of the Invention
Requirements engagements include an activity or group of activities that occur between consultants and clients that are used in the process of developing a requirements specification. A requirements specification includes requirements that define problems to be solved. Typically, the consultant has experience with solving engagement requirements that the client identifies to the consultant as being important in executing a successful engagement. In providing practices or solutions to be applied to the engagement requirements, the consultant uses practices known to the consultant to be applicable to satisfy the engagement requirements based on experience. In other words, the consultant typically uses a subjective standard to solve the problems of the client with respect to executing a successful requirements engagement. In fact, quite often the consultant tells a particular “war story” to add credibility to the practices that are being proposed to solve the problems. As understood in the art, practices may be any tool, technique, or process used to solve a problem. For example, one practice may be using a particular word processor, such as Microsoft Word®, or database, such as Oracle®, to solve the problem of electronic data storage.
One problem that exists with traditional consulting for clients having requirement engagements to be addressed is that the consultants typically force clients to use the practices that the consultant utilizes. The consultant does this because these are the particular reference engagement requirements from a conscious or unconscious list that the consultant qualitatively believes will ensure that a successful engagement is executed. Clients, too, utilize a conscious or unconscious list of reference engagement requirements that they qualitatively believe will ensure that a successful engagement is executed. Often, the consultant and the client are at odds because they disagree on the practices that best solve the underlying requirements of a successful engagement. While the consultant and client may differ concerning the underlying engagement requirements, the disagreement over the practices to address the engagement requirements is fundamentally a much larger issue and often becomes a major obstacle—even to the point of dissolving the relationship. Additionally, if during the process of executing the practices it is found that the practices are simply not satisfying the engagement requirements of the client or consultant, a change of the practices may not easily be made due to a lack of understanding of how changing one practice for another to solve one requirement affects other requirements that were relying on the original practice. If a change in practices occurs, the consultant may be unable to readily articulate to the client the ramifications of changing one practice for another, thereby leaving the client with an uninformed business decision to be made.